The Reading Room

The final cause of the Trojan War was Agamemnon's choice to sacrifice Iphigeneia at Aulis after the goddess Artemis bound the troops there due to a perceived slight. The goddess insisted that the blood of Atreus be spilt, or no… more

“All students and undergraduates should lay aside their various authors and only follow Aristotle and those who defend him. . . . [Avoid] all sterile and inane questions departing or disagreeing from ancient and true philosophy.” —… more

What is the nexus between liberty and Breaking Bad, named by Rolling Stone as the third-best television show of all-time? The archetypal tale of Walter White’s “transformation from Mr. Chips to Scarface” teaches that there is no… more

Happy Holidays from all of us at the Online Library of Liberty!!

What could possibly connect the spirit of Christmas, A Christmas Carol’s Ebenezer Scrooge, and Dante’s Inferno? Though they are differing representations at the literal level, each work portrays a similar underlying religious… more

Though Dante Alighieri is well known for his Inferno and the fact that he was happy to include bishops, popes, and kings in it, it would surprise many readers to hear that he included Santa Claus in his infernal masterpiece too.

Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755), valuing above all things political liberty—the opposite of despotism—valorizes the republican form of government but nonetheless offers a dispassionate analysis of republican (democratic or… more

It is with the deepest sadness that I have learned of the sudden passing of William Cullen Dennis II (1941-2023), one of Liberty Fund’s longtime employees who helped shape the form and substance of the foundation’s mission in its… more

That Robinson Crusoe and Friday are better together is obvious. No reader is surprised to find that, once united and working together, they do more together than apart. Yet, when we talk about essentially equivalent situations… more

Though the Christmas season is rapidly approaching, and Christmas trees, both artificial and natural, are adorning the homes of many individuals, it is far less likely that the denizens of those homes understand the origin of their… more

Critics sometimes accuse Stoic philosophy of defending an inflexible rationalism calling for single-minded pursuit of virtue for its own sake, at the expense of other commonly recognized goods like love and accomplishment, which are… more

If you wish to study, discuss, and write about history, it can be useful to have memory tags. When it comes to Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755)—a titan of the French Enlightenment—your tag is “separation… more

When As You Like It opens, the political world of its unnamed duchy is truly out of joint. At both the familial and ducal level, injustice is ascendent. What marks the play as a comedy—rather than one of Shakespeare’s blood-thirsty… more

A hundred years ago, even in the most difficult political situation, when the Tsarist Russian Empire was collapsing and Georgia was fighting for independence, there were fearless women who fought for equality and emancipation of… more

During the past few weeks, as Jews in America, Europe, and Israel have been experiencing an upsurge an antisemitism unlike anything the world has seen since the Holocaust—an increase in Jew-hatred so alarming that it prompted Senate… more

Some might be tempted to remember John Dickinson only as the man who at the last hour refused to support American independence. That would be an error. Among those American founders fallen into relative obscurity, few deserve… more

Born in Dessau to a poor family, his father a scribe, Moses Mendelssohn was educated privately by his father and a local rabbi, David Frankel, who not only taught him the Talmud and the Bible but also introduced him to philosophy… more

1qq`Some authors tend to deny the existence of free will because we are not Epicurean atoms or Nietzschean Ubermen with unconstrained freedom. We’re unable to defy the physical and social world in which we’re indelibly embedded. We… more

In the 2300s B.C., Sargon the Great united a disparate collection of city states located in Sumer in the southern portion of modern-day Iraq. By doing so, he created the world’s first empire, the Akkadian Empire. Having solidified… more

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a Tudor courtier, the first English translator of Petrarch’s sonnets, and a famous poet in his own right, is a supporting but important character in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels. Mantel first introduces him… more

It might seem weird to be including renowned horror novelist Stephen King in this essay series on classic pulp fiction. For one thing, he’s still alive, and for another thing, he’s not exactly known for pulp magazine short stories.… more

“The Haskalah movement had no less a historical impact on the Jews than did the French Revolution on Europe.” —Shmuel Feiner, The Jewish Enlightenment

The period between the Wars of the Roses and the England Civil War has been referred to by scholars as the ‘monarchy of counsel’: an era where advice and advisers were at the centre of political discourse. As concepts of ‘counsel’… more

“THE OCTOBER COUNTRY …that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country… more

When we think of the classics, we usually think of long, sober epic works of literature that address very serious themes—war, individual and societal turmoil, vengeance, treachery, and tragedy.

One of the most famous dinner parties in literature occurs in Book Five of Milton's Paradise Lost. Eve is busily preparing the evening meal when Adam comes running to tell her that the Angel Raphael is arriving to join them. Adam… more

The period between the Wars of the Roses and the England Civil War has been referred to by scholars as the ‘monarchy of counsel’: an era where advice and advisers were at the centre of political discourse. As concepts of ‘counsel’… more

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings presents several societies with different approaches to government. The most prominent include the idyllic Shire, the grand realm of Gondor, the hardy kingdom of Rohan, and the absolute… more

James Madison’s most radical proposal in The Federalist No. 51 was grounded in personal experience, even though he didn’t say so. Madison used a magisterial writing style, like all the authors who wrote the various Federalist Papers… more

“All my stories,” wrote H.P. Lovecraft, “unconnected as they may be, are based on the fundamental lore or legend that this world was inhabited at one time by another race who, in practising black magic, lost their foothold and were… more

“On the one hand, it was a long-standing requirement that monarchs receive counsel in order to legitimise their rule. On the other, this condition had the potential to undermine their authority if the monarch was required to act on… more

Benjamin Tucker’s Liberty in 1882 had a few things to say about our day’s concerns, such as war, antisemitism, and lawyers.

In Chapter 4 of my book, I explore a subtle but important distinction between a person having decisive reason to accept or endorse some view (“acceptability”) versus lacking decisive reason to reject it (“rejectability”). I have in… more

In recent months, financial services company Northwestern Mutual has used the chorus from a song by the Americana band “The Avett Brothers” in a commercial about managed wealth. The song, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise”… more

One of the surprise cultural hits of this past summer was the three-part Netflix docu-series Arnold, which has scored a 96% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and which has been lauded by critics and audiences alike.

In recent years, there has been a growing literature among historians regarding the relationship between slavery and capitalism, known as the “New History of Capitalism,” which postulates that slavery was the institutional basis for… more

It is so common for major, innovative thinkers to suffer at the hands of their states that it is almost a trope in the history of politics and theology. Socrates was tried and executed for impiety, Aristotle was accused of impiety… more

One of the most important and controversial principles originating from classical economics is the principle known as “Say’s Law,” or the fundamental law of markets. Although this economic principle can trace its roots back to Adam… more

In 1848, John Stuart Mill published his Principles of Political Economy. The book was an elaboration on the concepts and ideas developed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo and included applications to social philosophy and political… more

David Hume conceives the mind in metaphors. The mind is a theater, a republic, a stringed instrument. These metaphors suggest that an individual has multiple selves, whose relations resemble social interactions.

There is a third theme which weaves its way through the first few of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, building up to its use in one of the most famous Tales, the Wife of Bath’s Tale. This is the theme of a good woman.

It may seem strange to those this side of the Enlightenment that “the advancement of learning” should need any defense. If anything, we today are plagued with fears of misunderstanding rapidly advancing science, or of standing on… more

Review of: Alexandra Hudson, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves (St. Martin’s Press, 2023)

Paradise Lost, published more than 350 years ago (1667), is still almost routinely characterized as the greatest poem in English. More guardedly, it is called “the greatest epic poem.” (Yes, there are others, such as Beowulf,… more

Life was nasty, brutish and short. Many of us recall these famous words from Thomas Hobbes’ political treatise, Leviathan (1651). Fewer of us remember the context in which he described this state of humanity.

“One would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to recognize that Shakespeare’s grand, equivocal comedy, The Merchant of Venice, is a profoundly anti-Semitic work.” This is the pronouncement with which Shakespeare scholar, Harold… more

As Caroline Breashears has recently discussed, John Milton (1608-74) was a prominent champion of the freedom of the press, something he most famously exhibited in his 1644 tract Areopagitica. But Milton’s own writings were and… more

“As Peace, am I not praised by both men and gods as the very source and defender of all good things?...Though nothing is more odious to God and harmful to man, yet it is incredible to see the tremendous expenditure of work and… more

An earlier post explored the rigorous ‘dialogue’ elicited by the Knight’s Tale between the other pilgrims. The Miller is the first to push back, using a two-pronged attack against the ideas of high philosophy and courtly romance in… more

King Lear is a graphic, grotesque, visceral play. Blow after blow strikes Lear and the audience as we see a great man transformed from King of England to homeless, mad wretch, worse than the blind Gloucester and the raving Poor Tom.… more

The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.—David HumeThe life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an… more

When it comes to why Thomas Bowdler felt the need to “censor” Shakespeare’s Macbeth in 1807, the answer is pretty easy: it features a lady cursing.

It’s probably not a major surprise that prompted by the first three volumes of the Italian translation of Hume’s History of England, the Vatican placed all of Hume’s writings on the Index Librorum prohibitorum in 1827. [1] After… more

At the heart of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales lies the Challenge, the thing which draws out the innermost being of each of the characters, revealing a piece of their souls to their fellow pilgrims and sparking the wide-ranging… more

“The categorical imperative is therefore single and one: ‘Act from that maxim only which thou canst will law universal.’”—Immanuel Kant, Groundwork, Chapter II

“So it will never be performed?” said the queen. “Certainly not,” said Louis XVI. “You may be sure of that.”

Rousseau’s life was marked and marred by controversy and persecution. Though his lifestyle was somewhat sordid, as recounted in his Confessions, it was his ideas that were treated as most dangerous by his contemporary intellectual… more

In 1759, when Voltaire published Candide, at first anonymously, he was sixty-five years of age. He had been imprisoned in the Bastille, exiled to England in lieu of further incarceration, banished from Paris by King Louis XV (in… more

The limits of laissez-faire as a principle by which to limit the role of the government in a market economy has never been without controversy. Among the biggest “hotspots” that is representative of this controversy, still debated… more

That Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales has suffered periods of censorship and banning since its first publication should be of little surprise to anyone who has read any of it. Banned in the latter half of the 19th century in America… more

When I told a friend I had been charged with writing an article on Machiavelli for “banned books” week, he retorted: “Machiavelli? Are we banning Machiavelli now?” I was actually rather surprised he was surprised by a ban on… more

The old world ended with a bang, not with a whimper. After the Bastille, no political thinker could escape the haunting ghost of the French Revolution - and indeed students of politics still cannot. Antonio Rosmini (1787-1855) was… more

Britain, 1761. All of David Hume’s works are banned by the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, including his 1748 Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. What was so horrible about the work of this Scottish philosopher that would make the… more

It was a tiny room in the home of Madame Vernet on rue Servandoni in Paris. Marquis Nicolas de Condorcet sat writing by candlelight, the candle shaded for added security. He was writing a fragment of a much longer piece eventually… more

If people today have heard of Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, it’s usually as the author of the source material for two famous operas, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. He deserves to be far… more

Dante plumbs the depths of the human condition by recounting his existential journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise; a journey punctuated by poignant encounters with myriad souls. His journey is impelled by a midlife crisis… more

In the tapestry of human history, one recurring thread stands out – the need for limited power in leadership.

“If someone should attempt to take off the masks and costumes of the actors in a play and show to the audience their real appearances, would he not ruin the whole play?… For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which… more

In the twentieth century, a few communist or socialist governments banned or restricted access to the Qur’an. After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union restricted access to the Qur’an along with the Christian Gospels and Jewish… more

The banning and censoring of the Bible has a long and multifaceted history that continues to this day, and although it is not typically included within popular lists of banned books, it is safe to assert that the Bible is the most… more

If one were to reduce the numerous works of the three thousand year-long, still developing Jewish tradition to those books constitutive of that tradition, there would, by general agreement, be three. The first is the Hebrew Bible,… more

In 1638, John Milton left England for a Grand Tour of Europe, traveling through cities such as Paris, Nice, and Genoa. In Florence, he writes, "I found and visited the famous Galileo grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for… more

Banned Books Week runs from October 1-7. Because the OLL supports wide access to knowledge, informed readers, and challenging questions, we'll be dedicating the entire month of October to blog posts about books that have been… more

In the first part of Causes of the Trojan War, we discussed the Apple of Eris incident and who was truly at fault. Was it Eris, the goddess of Discord's, fault for throwing the apple marked kallisti in the first place?

Even to summarize the works that flowed from Kant’s pen can be challenging. They included another classic, the Critique of Practical Reason; major volumes on the nature of morality, aesthetics, politics, and anthropology; and one of… more

September’s OLL Birthday essay is in honor of Samuel Johnson, essayist, lexicographer, poet, moralist, and critic who has been called “the most distinguished man of letters in English history” and “The Great Cham of Literature.”

Many first-time readers of Homer’s Iliad are aghast at the fact that the “most famous” parts of the story do not even happen in the narrative of the Iliad. Achilleus never has his epic duel with Memnon, son of the Dawn. Achilleus is… more

I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith. —Immanuel Kant

Biography can be an excellent introduction to writers who have fallen into obscurity, and whose work is difficult to obtain or too slight to be a collected body of work. Kudos to Lucasta Miller and Frances Wilson for reconstructing… more

Will democracy survive? Recent years have not always brought encouragement. In Lincoln’s memorable phrase the possibility of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” was not a guarantee but a “proposition” yet to be… more

British diplomat, translator and well-known Georgianist, Sir Oliver Wardrop (1864-1948) is among those foreigners who were well acquainted not only with the political and socio-economic situation in Georgian, but also with its… more

René Descartes had written: “I think, therefore I am.” Thomas Hobbes responded: “I think, therefore matter thinks.”

In Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship [sic]," a young man declares that he will not marry the lady his father has chosen: "No never exclaimed I. Lady Dorothea is lovely and Engaging; I prefer no woman to her; but know Sir, that I… more

The Sanskrit poet Kalidasa lived and wrote in northern India during the Gupta dynasty (319-467 C.E.). Generally regarded as India’s greatest author, sometimes called the “Indian Shakespeare,” his work is known not only for its… more

The comparison of the new movie “Nefarious” and the book it is based on, The Nefarious Plot, to C.S. Lewis’ TheScrewtape Letters is hardly original. It is, however, largely superficial, by which I mean that most reviews do not… more

As one begins to read Homer’s Iliad, one might naturally wonder at who the thea, or goddess, from the first line of the poem really is. μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω ἈχιλῆοςRage, goddess, sing of the son of Peleus, Achilleus (Il.1.1)

“His knowledge was a reeking blasphemy which would never let rest…He had looked on ultimate foulness, and his knowledge was a taint because of which he could never stand clean before men again or touch the flesh of any living thing… more

In the second part of the study of loci amoeni, the pleasant places of the ancient world, we will continue to examine Homer’s Odyssey, now focusing on the location of one of its semi-divine antagonists. We will then conclude our… more

Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey. Early in his life his family moved to New York. The death of his father prevented him from going to college after completing his primary education.

August’s OLL Birthday Essay is in honor of Francis Hutcheson. Considered by some to be the Father of the Scottish Enlightenment, he influenced such famous figures as David Hume, Thomas Reid, and Adam Smith. His work was tremendously… more

It is hard to think of a theorist more straw manned and vilified than Niccolò Machiavelli, though Adam Smith and Karl Marx might give him a run for his money. Machiavelli’s writings, published in 1532 Italy, quickly became the stuff… more

Of the most famous and influential of the early pulp writers, Edgar Rice Burroughs is now, sadly, probably the least known, despite his vast influence on major science-fiction pop culture figures such as George Lucas and Ray… more

A common motif throughout ancient poetry from the near-East to the West is that of the tranquil and sacred garden. In particular, gardens play a preeminent role in describing paradise for near-Eastern and Western cultures. In fact,… more

In recent years, conservative lawmakers across the country have increasingly followed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in censoring or attempting to restrict race- or gender-related content in schools and public libraries.

What would… more

“Epicurus’s old questions are still unanswered: Is he [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?” —David… more

Although it is now an iconic title and story, Pride and Prejudice was originally supposed to be entitled “First Impressions”. Despite the name being scrapped, its implications are ever present throughout the novel. It is through… more

Reading Shakespeare is hard. The syntax is unusual and archaic. The vocabulary is vast and unfamiliar. The characters and plots are complicated and muddy. All in all, Shakespeare is difficult to understand, much less enjoy. However,… more

In Paradise Lost, Raphael makes an account to Adam about the war between the good angels and the rebel angels that took place in Heaven prior to his and Eve’s creation. The archangel tells Adam that Satan, frustrated by his… more

In a short period of time, new, consumer-facing, generative AI tools have exploded in capabilities and applications. Anyone with an internet connection and some time to kill can now use these tools to produce realistic images, short… more

“The identity that we ascribe to things is only a fictitious one, established by the mind, not a peculiar nature belonging to what we’re talking about.”—David Hume

“The hatred borne the Dudleys, made it be remarked, that Edward [VI] had every moment declined in health, from the time that lord Robert Dudley had been put about him.” Our third Dudley – Robert – makes his villainous entrance into… more

Brother men, you who live after us,Do not harden your hearts against us.-François Villon

For the past few weeks the conversation about movies in America—and around much of the rest of the world, for that matter—has been dominated by two films that have turned out to be two of the biggest hits in years: Christopher Nolan… more

In his treatment of Edmund Dudley, Henry VII’s unpopular minister, David Hume made arguments about the dangers of arbitrary rule and the importance of justice. As such, Edmund emerges as a mixed character, both a greedy transgressor… more

In some ways, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is a curious figure to include in this series on the Age of Enlightenment. He lived in the seventeenth century, the Age of Science, and so joins Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Thomas… more

This three-part blog series investigates the treatment of the Tudor Dudley family by enlightenment philosopher and historian David Hume in his History of England (vols 3 and 4), comparing his accounts to recent research on the… more

A trusted legal system with recognized property rights is one of, if not the, most critical precondition for national wealth accumulation, causing musings over private and public interests to quickly seep from economic into legal… more

No one in Europe could be indifferent to Napoleon’s ascent. He was its greatest liberator or its greatest threat. Beethoven, who despised ruling classes, was wildly enthusiastic about him. His manuscript for the Third Symphony, the… more

In winter 1619, the man who became the “founder of modern philosophy,” the first great philosophical challenge to centuries of Christianized Aristotelian Scholasticism, found himself caught by winter in the little town of Ulm, near… more

In 1865, when he was a student, young Niko Nikoladze met Karl Marx in London. The latter offered him the opportunity to be the representative of the First International in Transcaucasia, which Nikoladze delicately refused.

Written less than a decade after Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice explores many of the same themes.

Homer’s House of Hades is a dark, unsightly place, but is part of the invisible nature of Hades due to the fact that one might understand it not literally, but allegorically? Let us look to the opening lines of Book XI of Homer’s… more

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was Newton’s historic achievement. It altered the course of science from that day to this. In summer 1684, Newton began this work, partially stimulated by a visit from the British… more

July’s OLL Birthday Essay is in honor of the French historian, political scientist, and politician, Count Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 to April 16, 1859), better known simply as Alexis de… more

“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” spends a significant amount of time discussing the qualifications of nobility. In her monologue to the knight, the old woman characterizes gentility as a grace granted by God shown through virtuous deeds.… more

How do countries and cultures evolve from domination by one philosophy, one set of beliefs, one intellectual and academic establishment, to a radically different one?

What does language have to tell us about our daily politics? Can the use of specific terminologies influence public debates?

This first edition of an English translation of Lady Blennerhasset's Madame de Stael: Her Friends and Her Influence in Politics and Literature, which comes to the Liberty Fund archives through the Hamburger collection, seems a… more

During Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus tells the so-called “cyclops episode.” Odysseus gets himself into trouble looking for a "guest-gift" from a man with a savage and wild nature, who also happens to be a giant, man-eating… more

There exist many striking portraits of Isaac Newton (by then, Sir Isaac Newton) because during his lifetime his work arrested the world’s attention. Knowing something of Newton’s life, especially his early years, one gazes on these… more

Approximately halfway through his journey home from Troy, Odysseus is told that he must descend into the Underworld. Curiously, when Odysseus is told this, his first reaction is to cry (Ody.10.496-500). One might interpret this as… more

In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams announces to John that spring has lightened her mood. “I feel a gaiety de Coar to which before I was a stranger.” Her light mood did not prevent her from raising heavy topics, however.… more

In 1757, the Pennsylvania Assembly selected Benjamin Franklin to serve as the colony’s agent in London to moderate the Penn Proprietor’s harsh treatment of the colony. While there, he helped the Associates of Dr. Bray, a charity… more

As was the case with many in colonial America, Benjamin Franklin’s life intersected with the issue of slavery in many, and at times contradictory, ways. Franklin was a slave-owner beginning around 1735 until 1781, when George, whom… more

The ink was barely dry on the Bill of Rights when the U.S. Congress began attempting to restrict speech it might disagree with.

June’s OLL Birthday Essay goes out to Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt, generally known to history as Wilhelm von Humboldt. A true polymath, he was a diplomat, philosopher, poet, linguist and anthropologist,… more

Benjamin Tucker’s April 1, 1882 issue of Liberty had a few things to say about our day’s concerns, such as prisons, Silicon Valley Bank, and immigrants’ impacts on wages.

Was James Watt (1736–1819), born in Greenock, Scotland, a mechanical engineer, businessman, chemist, and inventor, also a “new philosopher”—the name that Enlightenment intellectuals adopted?

Tales of bloody vengeance are among the oldest of all stories. Look no further than Orestes, Hamlet, or any number of Norse Sagas. Laws against vengeance and blood feuds exist as far back as the earliest recorded law, the Code of… more

With the official start of summer this week, the world seems to be gearing up for travel. The OLL staff has been everywhere from Arizona to Glasgow to Jerusalem, with a lot more travel coming up through the summer month.

In Book VIII of Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus begins relating the story of his adventurous journey from Troy to the Phaeacian court. During his account, which spans Books VIII-XII, Odysseus famously tells of his dealings with the… more

With the publication of La Henriade, his epic poem glorifying King Henri IV for issuing the Edict of Nantes, which commanded toleration of Protestants (Huguenots), Voltaire was an open public enemy of intolerance and establishment… more

A few weeks ago we were all witnesses to history when we watched the longest heir-to-the-throne-in-waiting in British history finally ascend the throne in his seventy-fourth year of life. But it wasn’t only King Charles III who made… more

Among the many works that influenced and shaped J.R.R Tolkien’s Middle Earth, none is more evident than Beowulf. This 10th Century Anglo-Saxon poem speaks of mighty kings, demonic beasts, and dragon-slaying heroes. One such hero is… more

We often hear of the modest, orderly American Revolution vis-à-vis the French. The American one was a “revolution of sober expectations,” Martin Diamond said. To make his case, Diamond cited Tocqueville, who explained that the “… more

To name Voltaire is to characterize the entire eighteenth century.--Victor Hugo

In the final act of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the sorcerer Prospero who is also the usurped (but now restored) Duke of Milan, works to settle his affairs before he returns to Milan. He and his daughter Miranda have lived on a… more

It's Adam Smith's 300th birthday this month! Here are a few ways to celebrate!

William Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet begins with one of the strongest one-two punches in lyric poetry. The first line asks the question, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

On the long runway to take-off of the Enlightenment—and the modern world as we know it—were the intellectual movements of humanism, including the scientific revolution (late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), the Renaissance… more

Like so many of Shakespeare’s comedies, Much Ado About Nothing comes perilously close to becoming a tragedy before being rescued by the mitigating graces of providential serendipity and human forgiveness. A series of entirely… more

Though William Shakespeare may have wished it otherwise, there was no such thing as a free lunch or, in Jack Cade’s terms, a “sallet” in the bard’s garden. Conversations of self-interest and social distribution pervade Henry VI,… more

Amid all the revolutions of the globe, the economy of Nature has been uniform . . . and her laws are the only things that have resisted the general movement. The rivers and the rocks, the seas and the continents, have been changed… more

Shakespeare’s romance The Winter’s Tale depicts the consequences of unfounded mistrust and accusation, the healing results of charity and forgiveness, and the overarching notion that the world is governed by a benevolent Providence… more

While in Europe the famous English philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote his eminent On Liberty (1859) and perfected the teachings of utilitarian liberalism, in the East, namely in Georgia, which at that time was a part of the Tsarist… more

Shakespeare’s telling of the tale of Antony and Cleopatra is at once a story of erotic love and political transformation. Shakespeare understands erotic love as a disruptive force that compels and, just as often, reacts to change.… more

May’s OLL Birthday essay is dedicated to the American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through his life of lecturing and writing, Emerson was a tireless supporter of the dignity and freedom of every individual.

In Act 4, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Duke Vincentio of Vienna, disguised as a friar, succeeds in his aim to convince Mariana, the jilted fiancée of his self-righteous and hypocritical deputy Angelo, to trick… more

Finals week is upon us, and students everywhere are reviewing notes, writing papers, sitting exams, and hoping to remember enough of what they've read to succeed. Pierre Goodrich's copy of Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia opens a… more

Henry V (1599), Shakespeare’s last Elizabethan history play, is framed by two regime changes. It opens at the accession of Henry V, a man reformed who has left behind his wild ways and degenerate companions such as Falstaff. It… more

Concert music from before the twentieth century that sympathetically treats pagan religions suffering from Christian persecution is rare. Felix Mendelssohn’s cantata based on Goethe’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht (the first Walpurgis… more

When I am teaching about the problem of legitimate political authority, I always start with the First Book of Samuel, from the Hebrew Bible. The story is a debate over the nature of law, obligation, and leadership. Israel was at the… more

Unless you have been living under an upturned mountain by now you likely know that this past Saturday Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor (good luck getting all that on to his driver’s license!) was crowned King Charles… more

Written at the end of the sixteenth century, Henry IV, Part I depicts an increasingly commercial, market-driven London, based on transactions, accounting, and imported goods. Harry is not just at ease in this grubby, commercial… more

I wish that it were a “cliché” that the European movement called the “Enlightenment” (1650–1815) created the modern world. If that were universally acknowledged, then it would be a commonplace that the human faculty of reason must… more

Disturbed and compelled by the power of storytelling that it exemplifies, The Rape of Lucrece gives its heroine not only physical beauty and chastity but formidable rhetorical skills.

One of Pierre Goodrich's long time hobbies was making reading lists of recommended reading for a well-rounded, well-educated person. He made (at least) one while planning Liberty Fund. He made one for undergraduates at Wabash… more

In London between 1700 and 1750 one in six theatrical performances was a Shakespearean play. In fact, the most popular comic dramatists of the time, Arthur Murphy, declared, “With us islanders, Shakespeare is a kind of established… more

All kinds of Enlightenment events occurred before 1715 and after 1789, but those dates tend to prevail because they are French. The most credible explanation for this is the monumental French Encyclopedia and the circle of… more

“The best counsellors are the dead.”

So the long-serving Elizabethan and Stuart courtier, Sir Francis Bacon, concluded in his essay “On Counsel” in 1612. Bacon was not the first to use this maxim, often appearing in the Latin as “… more

“The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society.”~ Judith Martin… more

Much like Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I, Shakespeare understood that with reward, comes risk and with individual risk and reward, come certain inequities. Shakespeare’s status as a rational, cautious investor distinguished him from… more

In his years as physician to and political collaborator with Shaftesbury, leader of the English Whigs, John Locke had many roles, among them as a fellow of the New Royal Society, conducting medical research, and as Shaftesbury's… more

Few writers can have been more controversial than Machiavelli, whose very name became an adjective meaning "cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous" with particular reference to those who behave thusly in the political arena. I,… more

April’s Birthday Essay is in honor of Herbert Spencer, a British polymath who was probably the most widely read intellectual in history, and who enjoyed tremendous fame during his lifetime, only to be largely forgotten after his… more

The world hardly needs another brief introduction to the giant of English philosophy, John Locke. He could be called the author of the Western mind. And has been called the quintessential man of the Enlightenment, the “father of… more

For the student of the history of economic thought, it is interesting to think about whether the pre-Classical thinkers would grade well on an exam given by Buchanan on what economists should do. Specifically, how would Ibn… more

The lively colors of this book from Pierre Goodrich's personal collection made it jump off the shelf during this week's visit to the Liberty Fund rare book room. The title is not, as I had first speculated, that of a romance novel.… more

In the eighth canto of Dante’s Paradiso, now in the third sphere of Venus, one witnesses a discussion of how Nature, or the embodied Spirit or Will of God, does not actually distinguish between the individuality of people. It sees… more

“We are now trusting to those who are against us in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our youth. . . . This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence.”—Thomas Jefferson

On December 24 and 25, 1989, Leonard Bernstein led concerts celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They included Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in which solo singers and a chorus present part of Friedrich Schiller’s “An… more

Our friends at Adam Smith Works thought that visitors to the Reading Room might be particularly interested in joining their upcoming Virtual Reading Group on Edith Wharton's House of Mirth and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

The concurrence of Ramadan, Pesach, and Easter sent me to the Liberty Fund archives to see if I could find an appropriate book title to highlight this week. Goodrich's collection did not disappoint.

T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral is perhaps one of the best mergings of the Classical and the Christian traditions in dramatic form that I have ever encountered. Though the subject matter is indisputably Christian, the form of… more

The Age of Enlightenment (conventionally, 1685-1815) saw the nations of Europe refocus from religion to the human condition on earth, reason as the method of improving it, and the rights of the individual. But in what field did this… more

In Borges' Library of Babel, the titular library contains every book from all possible universes, thoughts, and dreams, including both coherent and incoherent works. Everything that ever could be written is there, and so is every… more

We have seen that Sandefer’s case for the Rand-Sandefur thesis that Lewis broadly condemns all modern statist regimes is weak. I turn here to the textual case for a different reading of the political message of It Can’t Happen Here.… more

The presidential election of 2016 rekindled interest in Sinclair Lewis’ prophetic 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here. (2014, henceforth ICHH) One hard question about It Can’t Happen Here is, what exactly is the It that Lewis… more

This month’s featured birthday anniversary is that of the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, best known for his work on the sociology of the State, which subsequently became tremendously influential among anarchist and… more

A 2018 article in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics entitled, “Clinicians’ Need for an Ecological Approach to Violence Reduction” presents an illuminating example of moral overreach, apparently inspired by a line… more

Moral ambition is, in principle, an admirable trait, but soaring ambition, especially when it is unmodulated by practical wisdom, can wreak considerable harm. In other words, the impulse to do good can fail to respect the bounds of… more

It can seem that every battle Edmund Burke fought became epic, remembered by history: his attempts to head off the war with the American colonies, his defense of representative democracy, his opposition to the British East India… more

The copy of Harriet Martineau's Letters from Ireland that lives in the Liberty Fund rare book room as part of the Hamburger collection, seems to be an idea book to take off the shelves for both Women's History Month and St.… more

How can just vengeance itself receive a just punishment? This is the major question in the seventh canto of Dante’s Paradiso. In this second sphere of heaven, named Mercury, those who sought worldly fame and the active life at the… more

Todd Field’s Tár, nominated for six Oscars, is a beautiful but densely constructed film that expects much of its audience and explains little. The movie assumes a familiarity with the world of classical music, and viewers must… more

Four times I have posed, in these pages, the question: “What Irish Enlightenment?” And answered with the “cases” of John Toland, Jonathan Swift, George Berkeley, and Maria Edgeworth—a priest/academic, a satirist, a philosopher, and… more

What better author from the Liberty Fund archives could there be to mark Women's History Month than Frances "Fanny" Trollope? The mother of the prolific and respected novelist Anthony Trollope, Frances Trollope is widely considered… more

Look, we all know how it is. You sit down with the Wall Street Journal, there's a faint haze, a buzzing noise, maybe some flashing lights, and you're suddenly the proud possessor of 5 or 6 new books on topics that you didn't know… more

The Nazis made Richard Wagner a national hero. Hitler loved his music, and Germany made the Bayreuth Music Festival a center of Nazi propaganda. Goebbels called Die Meistersinger “the most German of all German operas.” Today, many… more

Imagine you wake up alone on a boat, surrounded by a vast expanse of water with no land in sight. You have no memory of how you got there, what land the boat sailed from or where it is going, or even if you are on an ocean or a… more

Pursuing the elusive character of the Irish Enlightenment through its leading figures (so far in this series, John Toland, Jonathan Swift, and George Berkeley), one issue that arises is the historical parameters of the European… more

I have, I must confess, romantic and childish notions about John Bunyan's great 1678 allegorical novel, The Pilgrim's Progress. Undoubtedly my notions date from my reading of Little Women when I was a teen. Louisa May Alcott adapts… more

Legal norms and processes are not mere tools for achieving one’s preferred conception of a good society but are themselves part of a good society. Law is not some third wheel to liberty and justice. It’s a necessary companion to… more

February’s OLL Birthday Essay celebrates the great French humanist and philosopher, Michel de Montaigne. Despite, or perhaps because of, his aristocratic heritage and privileged upbringing, he developed a non-pretentious personal… more

In earlier posts on John Toland and Jonathan Swift, I pointed out that champions of the Irish Enlightenment seem to elude being identified with specifically Irish aspects of that European movement. George Berkeley, born in Dysart… more

One of the great joys of working at Liberty Fund, and of working with our websites, in particular, is the chance to learn about so many new things. Without Walter Donway's recent posts on the Irish Enlightenment--and about John… more

Over this past Summer, we invited scholars into the Reading Room to share their views on the Founding Fathers and Mothers and why we should read and understand them today. They explored the likes of George Mason, Deborah Sampson,… more

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.""Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."--Jonathan Swift

Louis XIV of France was a renowned patron of the arts. He provided extravagant royal funds for theater, architecture, dance, and music. Artists who won his favor lived very well. Those without royal connections, though, found it… more

When I blogged about Pierre Goodrich's copies of Darwin, I mentioned his long-standing interest in the history of science. Finding a modern (1941) translation of William Harvey's masterwork, De Motu Cordis (The Motion of the Heart)… more

Today we consider Cantos 5-6 from Dante’s Paradiso and finish Dante's time with the Oath Breakers and Unfulfilled vowers from the Sphere of the Moon (Constance and Piccarda). We will then shoot up "like an arrow that strikes the… more

I have been a fan of Joseph Schumpeter ever since someone told me of his famous comment, "Early in life I had three ambitions. I wanted to be the greatest economist in the world, the greatest horseman in Austria, and the best lover… more

“What Irish Enlightenment?” is the first question for one setting out to discuss Ireland’s participation in the pan-European philosophical, political, economic, social, and literary movement that created the modern world. About… more

This is the book that knocked my socks off the first time I visited Liberty Fund's rare book collection, more than twenty years ago. It is a 1648 edition of Hobbes's 1629 translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War… more

In Russia, the Enlightenment began just as the country emerged from the medieval period. Contrast that with the West, where the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries) and the beginnings of the scientific revolution laid the foundations… more

Our modern picture of Johann Sebastian Bach is lopsided. He wrote both secular and religious vocal music, but much more of the latter survived. It’s unquestionable that his Christian beliefs inspired him to write some of the… more

This January’s Birthday essay honors John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton of Aldenham, 8th Baronet, more commonly known simply as Lord Acton. His writings and lectures as a liberal, Catholic historian were tremendously… more

It is hard to overstate the importance of Richard Hooker's Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity. The book set out to describe the ways in which the Church of England was distinctive--neither Catholic nor Calvinist--and wound up all but… more

In the Sphere of the Moon in Dante’s Paradiso, Dante meets two radiant former-nuns who at first seem like “reflections in a deep pool.” So faint are they to him that they are much like a vague thought or reflection one has not yet… more

The John Wick franchise is better known for its award-winning stunts than its screenplays. The plots seem thin as a garotte, while the dialogue focuses on guns and Wick's ability to kill with a mere pencil. Yet the March release of… more

After a frenetic and tirelessly productive career, including advocacy of religious liberty that landed him in prison, Daniel Defoe, age 59, began the writing that made him one of history’s unforgettable novelists--known to us all.

Arthur Waley's early 20th century translations opened up the subtle beauties and nuances of classical Chinese poetry to a whole new audience. Still regarded as exceptionally well done, Waley's translations were accurate and erudite,… more

In the first Sphere of Paradise, the Moon, we encounter our first cadre of difficult philosophical questions. In addition to those “simple” ones of how one moves in Paradise, and how a body would move in it (it couldn’t—just like a… more

One hundred years ago, the British writer G.K. Chesterton traveled to the United States for a lecture tour. He published his observations of America in What I Saw in America (1922). In an essay titled “The American Businessman”,… more

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe made a lasting impression on me as a boy. But I seem to have missed the theme, which historians view as religious salvation—“deliverance”—and religious tolerance.

Nor did I get around, back then, to… more

We at the Online Library of Liberty think that there are few better things one could do today than to read or listen to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Liberty Fund's founder had an abiding interest in the history of science. His library contains works by Boyle and Newton, and he listed Galileo, Avicenna, Ptolemy, and other scientific thinkers on the wall in the Goodrich Seminar… more

Welcome to Celestial Paradise, otherwise known as the Heaven in Dante’s Paradiso. Yes, that heaven; the heaven, even, for medieval Catholics.

You cannot read many biographies of men who engaged the American separation from Britain, declaration of an independent nation, and shaping and winning ratification of the Constitution without encountering—repeatedly—references to… more

Among Daniel Defoe's masterpieces is Moll Flanders, published in 1722 with a long eighteenth-century title that seems to reveal everything but the protagonist's petticoat:

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders,… more

I pulled Pierre Goodrich's copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary off the shelves because of the glorious mid 20th century book design. The striking cream and black checkerboard is eye-catching and emphasizes the "marquee"… more

Antecedents of the revolution led by Ataturk must be sought in the Turkish Enlightenment, which had two phases.

He led an overwhelmingly Islamic population out of the Ottoman Empire, created a new secular nation, introduced protections of individual rights, deposed both the sultan and the caliph to introduce a presidency, initiated a Western… more